The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems (IHSs), and more particularly to dynamically adjusting an IHS power system to store energy for power excursions by an IHS.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an IHS. An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As IHS performance continues to increase, IHS power demands are increasing to support this increased performance, and are resulting in increased IHS power excursions that may provide relatively short but high peak power demands on the power system. Conventionally, power excursions such as, for example, dynamic power (Pdyn) and maximum power (Pmax) excursions of an IHS processor, drive the sizing of the power system components. For example, a load integrated circuit (IC) die may be powered by a voltage regulator that draws its power from a voltage power plane distributed on a motherboard, and that voltage plane is powered from a power supply unit (PSU) in the power system. When IC die power excursions are relatively low, the voltage regulator can generally handle those power excursions without that power demand being “seen” at the PSU (i.e., they do not increase the output current demand from the PSU.) However, when the IC die power excursions become relatively high, they begin to be seen by the PSU (i.e., they increase the output current demand from the PSU), and if those power excursions become high enough, a protection circuit in the PSU may be asserted that will cause the PSU to shutdown, which may result in data loss. This can occur due to peak power excursions even when the average power drawn by the IHS is well below a PSU shutdown threshold. Conventional solutions to this issue are to provide a power system that is sized for any possible IHS peak power excursions, which result in costly, oversized, and inefficient power systems that have power output capabilities that are not needed for the vast majority of system operation, which occurs at power levels well below those IHS peak power excursion power levels.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved IHS power system.